When Samuel Smiles was a schoolboy in Scotland, he was fonder of frolic
than of learning. He was not a prize-winner, and so was not one of his
teacher's favorites. One day his master, vexed by his dulness, cried out,
"Smiles, you will never be fit for anything but sweeping the streets of
your native borough!" From that day the boy's mates called him by the name
of the street sweeper in the little town. But he was not discouraged.
"If I have done anything worthy of being remembered," he wrote, more than
sixty years later, when his name was known over the whole world, "it has
not been through any superiority of gifts, but only through a moderate
portion of them, accompanied, it is true, with energy and the habit of
industry and application. As in the case of every one else, I had for the
most part to teach myself.... Then I enjoyed good health, and health is
more excellent than prizes. Exercise, the joy of interest and of activity,
the play of the faculties, is the true life of a boy, as of a man. I had
also the benefit of living in the country, with its many pleasures and
wonders."
When he was fourteen, he was apprenticed to a physician. In the intervals
of his work, he sought to continue his education by reading. Books were
expensive then, but several libraries were open to him.
The death of his father near the end of his medical course, and consequent
financial reverses, made him hesitate as to the wisdom of finishing his
studies. In speaking of this, he made mention for the first time of his
indebtedness to his mother. "You must go back to Edinburgh," she said, "and
do as your father desired. God will provide." She had the most perfect
faith in Providence, and believed that if she did her duty, she would be
supported to the end. She had wonderful pluck and abundant common sense.
Her character seemed to develop with the calls made upon her. Difficulties
only brought out the essence of her nature. "I could not fail to be
influenced by so good a mother."
But he was not to find his life-work as a doctor. For some years he
practised medicine. Then he became editor of a political paper. Later, he
was a railroad manager. Experience in writing gained in the newspaper
office prepared him for literary work, by which he is best known.
These being the chief events and influences of his boyhood, the story of
his most famous book, "Self-Help," is just what might be expected. It is a
story full of inspiration.
In 1845, at the request of a committee of working men, he made an address
to the society which they represented, on "The Education of the Working
Classes." This excited such favorable comment that he determined to enlarge
the lecture into a book. Thus "Self-Help" was written. But it was not to be
published for many years. In 1854 the manuscript was submitted anonymously
to a London publisher, and was politely declined. Undaunted, he laid it
aside and began an account of the life of George Stephenson, with whom he
had been associated in railway work. This biography was a great success.
Thus encouraged, he took from the drawer, where it had lain for four years,
the rejected manuscript of "Self-Help," rewrote it, and offered it to his
publishers. It was not his intention, even then, to use his name as author,
so little did he think of himself. But, listening to the advice of friends,
he permitted his name to appear. Very soon he was famous, for thirty-five
thousand copies were sold during the first two years. In less than forty
years two hundred and fifty-eight thousand copies have been disposed of in
England alone. American publishers reprinted the book almost at once, and
it soon became a favorite in school libraries in many States. It was
translated into Dutch, German, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Czech,
Croatian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Danish, Polish, Chinese,
Siamese, Arabic, and several dialects of India.
But the author did not look on the fame and fortune brought to him by his
book as his chief reward. It had been his desire to be helpful to the
plodding, discouraged men and boys. As he expressed it himself: "It seemed
to me that the most important results in daily life are to be obtained, not
through the exercise of extraordinary powers, but through the energetic use
of simple means, and ordinary qualities, with which all have been more or
less endowed."
As his greatest reward he looked upon the grateful testimony of men of many
countries who had been inspired by the book to greater effort, and so
spurred on to success. An emigrant in New England wrote that he thanked God
for the volume, which had been the cause of an entire alteration in his
life. A working man wrote: "Since perusing the book I have experienced an
entire revolution in my habits. Instead of regarding life as a weary
course, which has to be gotten over as a task, I now view it in the light
of a trust, of which I must make the most." A country schoolboy received a
copy as a prize, and his life was transformed by the reading. By
perseverance he secured an education, and became a surgeon. After a few
years he lost his life in an attempt to help others. Such testimonies as
these made Mr. Smiles happy, and are a fitting memorial to him. He died in
1904, at the age of ninety-two.
How much more satisfying to look back on a life of such usefulness than to
say, as Jules Verne, author of many books, was compelled to say, "I amount
to nothing ... in literature."--_John T. Faris, D. D., in "Self-Help"
published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York_.
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